Don't Leave Me Hanging

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 (New International Version)

Various Laws
22 If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, 23 you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Galatians 3:13 (New International Version)
13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." Billie Holiday sang a song about, “Strange Fruit” in tribute to all of the black men and women who were lynched in the South. Between 1880 and 1951 the Tuskegee Institute recorded 3,437 lynchings of African Americans, as well as 1,293 whites.[1]

Many of them were hanged for minor infractions like looking at a white woman or not getting off the sidewalk when a white man came by. They were dragged out of jails by lynch mobs to be hung while jeering crowds celebrated through the night. It is an ugly part of our history that we do not like to remember, but it happened.

You cannot help but think that there are some cursed grounds because of these hangings. The innocent blood of hundreds that have soaked the grounds of the United States.

Moses told the Israelites if a guilty man was hanged he served to be buried before the next day or his death would defile the land. Not only were these men and women that were lynched in America left hanging, most of them were innocent.

We still suffer from the defilement of this Promised Land because of innocent bloodshed. In Post modern times, we have the noose in Jena but not the literal lynching, just minorities left hanging with no justice. Our banks have left families hanging with foreclosures and no where to go. Poor people have been left hanging with no universal health care. America has been “Niggerized”, as Dr. Cornell West defines it, as a sense of powerlessness and vulnerability to terrorist attack.

The only hope for America’s redemption is by one who has been hung before. He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him... He hung, bled and died that we might be free.

Jesus was found guilty of Blasphemy but he had no sin. The lynch mob took him from the jail and beat him all night long. They had a hung Jury that influenced the judicial system and they lynched him. He was hung up for our hang ups, but God didn’t leave him hanging. They buried him in a borrowed tomb because he wouldn’t need it long. Three days later he got up with all power in his hands.

God is not going to leave us hanging during this recession, the blood of the martyrs cries out from the ground demanding redemption. God expects us to take advantage of the forgiveness and atonement through Jesus blood by:

1. Standing up for Justice whether it’s through closing down Guantanamo or stopping innocent men from filling up prisons.

2. Helping those in need in feeding lines to unemployment lines.

3. Stop Racism from New York Post to field posts.

4. Heal from the Past by talking about it and not acting like it didn’t happen.

Dear God, heal our land from the blood of the Martyrs. Help us to turn back to you. Forgive us our sins, all of us.

In Jesus Name,
Amen